TV/radio notebook: Most of state will see Cowboys, not Texans

By David Barron |
November 10, 2011
| Updated: November 10, 2011 9:43pm

The pall cast over the world of sports by the Penn State scandal, which received wall-to-wall treatment Thursday on ESPN and Big Ten Network, is so palpable that it's hard to contemplate frivolity.

But the games will go on (even though Mike Moran, the former spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, sent out a well-reasoned argument Thursday that Penn State should forfeit its Saturday game with Nebraska), and we will proceed with Four DVRs, No Waiting.

The Texans and their fans may not like to hear this, but Houston's AFC South leaders will play second fiddle across much of the state Sunday to the mediocre 4-4 Dallas Cowboys.

CBS has both Texans-Buccaneers and Bills-Cowboys at noon Sunday, and most of the state is going with Bills-Cowboys. Only KHOU (Channel 11) in Houston, KFDM in Beaumont, KBTX in Bryan-College Station and KXTS in Victoria will carry the Texans game.

KGBT in McAllen is polling viewers on its Facebook site to determine which game it should carry. The Cowboys game had a narrow lead Thursday afternoon. …

Marv Albert and Rich Gannon will call Texans-Buccaneers. Channel 11 recorded a 21.5 Nielsen rating and 44 share for Houston's win over the Browns. …

LSU-Alabama last Saturday averaged an 11.5 rating and 20 share with an average audience of 20 million viewers, the most for a college game on CBS since 22.4 million for Notre Dame-Miami in 1989. …

ESPN says Houston is one of seven potential sites for the Nov. 19 edition of College Football GameDay prior to the SMU-Houston game. GameDay has not visited Houston since November 2005 for Southern-Grambling, which was moved to Reliant Stadium after Hurricane Katrina.

Worrell gets Emmy

On the whole, Bill Worrell would rather have been in Philadelphia, where the Rockets were scheduled to play the 76ers on Wednesday night, than in New Orleans, where he planned to watch the Houston Cougars' football game against Tulane.

But settling the NBA lockout is a few steps above Worrell's pay grade, so he's waiting with the rest of the Rockets' staff for the owners and players to come to terms on a new labor agreement.

In the meantime, he has an Emmy award for solace. Worrell was honored in the category of sports play-by-play at the annual Lone Star Emmys presentation for his work on Rockets basketball broadcasts on Fox Sports Houston.

"I'm going to take the Emmy and sit at my desk and pretend I'm calling a basketball game," Worrell said. "I do appreciate it at this stage of my career. It means a little more the older you get." …

Thanks in large part to the Texans' success thus far, KILT (610 AM) has cracked the top 10 in men 25-54 in Arbitron's October ratings. Gavin Spittle, the station's program director, said it's believed to be the first time on record that a sports station has cracked the top 10 in men 25-54 for the weeklong numbers. KBME (790 AM) and KFNC (97.5 FM) cracked the top 20; KGOW (1560 AM) ranked 35th.

KILT's morning show ranked seventh in its time slot as the four all-sports stations combined for a 9.9 share in morning drive. KBME continues to lead at midday, and KILT ranked sixth in afternoon drive among all stations and beat its three sports competitors combined. KILT also led KTRH (740 AM) in people 25-54 for the second consecutive month.

Frazier flashback

In the wake of Joe Frazier's death, HBO will re-air John Dower's dark, depressing 2008 film Thrilla in Manila, the 2009 Peabody Award-winning documentary on the third Muhammad Ali-Frazier fight, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. I don't know if that's a wise choice on HBO's part. Its One Nation … Divisible film, on the first Ali-Frazier fight, probably is a better tribute to Frazier than his bitter, resentful persona in Thrilla in Manila. But it's worth watching. …

ESPN will allow free access to its Longhorn Network to all broadband subscribers, regardless of provider, from 9 a.m. Friday through midnight Sunday. The channel will be available locally only at http://espn.go.com/longhornnetwork but not on cable, telco or satellite services that do not already receive the service. …